


What the Cat Dragged In

by firefright



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Jason Todd's Unresolved Feelings, Pining, Rain, jaydick_flashfic: bad weather
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 08:31:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20079232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firefright/pseuds/firefright
Summary: Dick gets caught out in the rain, forcing Jason to not-so-reluctantly take care of him.





	What the Cat Dragged In

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all. Another quick little story here for the [JayDick Flash Fic](https://jaydick-flashfic.tumblr.com/) challenge over on tumblr. Hope you enjoy!

“Wow,” Jason says, when he opens his door to reveal a sodden Dick Grayson on the other side of it. “It really is raining cats and dogs out there, huh? Always knew it would take something biblical to get you to visit here, big bird.”

“Jason,” Dick groans, his face almost completely buried under the dark, dripping mass of his hair and the sunglasses he’s wearing. “Can I please come in?”

“And the boy says please and everything!” Jason grins, continuing to eye him up and down with far too much enjoyment of the current situation, even if he is still somewhat annoyed that Dick is an hour late getting here, despite the raging storm outside. “What’s the matter, afraid of getting swept into the gutter with the rest of the trash? ‘You’ll float, too’ and all?”

Dick glares at him, and yeah, okay, maybe that joke was in bad taste. “Jason…”

He shrugs it off. “Yeah, yeah, I’m only teasing. Sure, why not. Come in and take a load off, Dickie.”

He moves aside to allow Dick step through, which he does with all the grace of a drowned rat, and Jason has second thoughts about letting him in when the sound of squelching shoes and drops of water hitting wood makes him realise Dick’s about to make a complete mess of his hardwood floor. Oh well, too late now. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they say.

“Thanks,” Dick sighs, taking off his sunglasses. He really does look a mess after getting caught in the mother of all sudden deluges. Especially wearing his civilian persona. As always, he stands out in the worst way around Crime Alley. Too clean, too polished. Too… bright, despite his best efforts to look otherwise. “You got a towel or something I can use?”

“Sure.” Jason replies, tearing himself away from those thoughts. “You can even have a hot shower if you want to, I’m just that nice.”

“The towel will do fine, Jay, thank you.” Dick replies dryly, before mercifully toeing off his sneakers and following him further into the apartment with evident relief. “Maybe a change of clothes, though.”

“What, you want the skin off my back next?” Jason is almost petty enough to say no on principal, but in the end he can’t be that cruel, even for a joke. Especially when, after going and retrieving the towel for Dick, he starts shivering and sneezing. Cute, little, almost kitten-like sneezes, too. Nothing like the big, foghorn ones Jason tends to let out when he gets a cold. And a second after having that thought, Jason berates himself for letting the word ‘cute’ fall into association with Dick in his mind again. He had enough trouble with such thoughts in his youth, back when he was just a dumb, horny teenager who really should have known better.

“Here,” He gets him a t-shirt and pair of sweatpants from his closet. Clean ones. “Bathroom’s through there. Go get yourself changed before Alfred astral-projects across the city to slap us both for you being so stupid.”

“It’s not my fault,” Dick grumbles. “That rainstorm came out of nowhere.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jason rolls his eyes, before giving him a shove in the right direction. “Go on, I’ll make us something hot to drink. Then you can explain to me why your dumb ass is so late getting here.”

A strange look passes over Dick’s face after he says it, but ultimately he doesn’t protest anymore before going and doing as he’s told. Which of course leaves Jason to ponder the reason for it alone as he makes his way to the kitchen and fishes out the ingredients to start making a pan of cocoa. He doesn’t tend to keep coffee around in any of his safehouses unless Tim leaves it there, and he has a feeling Dick will prefer something chocolate based to tea right now.

He’s just got the milk heated when Dick reappears, and oh, Jason feels himself start. He hadn’t considered this particular fallout of letting Dick borrow some of his clothes to wear. Namely that the couple extra inches of height Jason has over him has the effect of making Dick look smaller and more slender than he actually is, and that in turn does some funny things to Jason’s stomach. Hot, tight, awful things, that bring up swift flashes of adolescent fantasies so embarrassing that he wants nothing more than to shove his face down into the hot milk he’s supposed to be stirring.

So much for moving on from his teenage years. Ruthlessly, Jason squashes the feeling down. Or tries to, at least.

“Is that cocoa?” Dick asks hopefully as he comes up to his shoulder, unknowingly undoing a lot of Jason’s efforts just by his proximity.

“Yeah,” he answers, attempting to play it cool, while also hoping that his ears aren’t burning red. “It’ll just be another minute.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

Jason pauses, remembering some of the past experiences he’s had with Dick in the kitchen. “Yeah,” he says, before pointing with his spoon. “Stand there in the corner and don’t touch anything.”

“Hey,” Dick protests, pouting and proving his point. “I am not that bad.”

Jason remain unaffected. “My kitchen, my rules.” he says. “You want the cocoa or not?”

“... yes.” 

“Then stay out of my way.”

Dick sighs, but offers no further protest before mostly doing as he’s told, moving to sit on one of the stools at the kitchen’s island rather than stand in the corner, as Jason specifically instructed.

“Alright, big bird, drink up.” Jason sets one mug down in front of him a couple minutes later, filled almost to the brim with hot cocoa.

“No marshmallows or cream and sprinkles?” Dick looks up at him hopefully from underneath the still damp curtain of his hair, which has… oh god, fluffed up something fierce from being rubbed by the towel. Which only serves to work further against Jason’s bid to act normal in the face of Dick’s natural… Dick-ness.

Shit, that is officially the worst sentence he’s ever thought of. If only his brain came with an erase button, Jason would be keeping his thumb on it full-time right now.

Swallowing hard, he rolls his eyes. “Don’t push your luck. You’re an hour late, Dick. I’m not exactly rolling out the red carpet for you here.”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” Dick unsuccessfully tries to hide his smile in his mug. “Thank you, Jason. The cocoa’s great.”

“Of course it is, I made it.” Jason picks up the mug he made for himself and swirls it in a determined bid to look anywhere but at Dick. If he does, he’ll almost certainly betray something. “Now, you gonna give me an explanation for why you’re late or what?”

Dick sighs, taking a sip of his cocoa before abruptly sneezing again. Jason winces in turn as he glances up in time to watch him rub his nose against the back of his hand. “Damian.”

“Damian?” Jason repeats, reaching over to grab him a piece of kitchen roll to wipe his nose with instead, because that’s just gross. “What did that little shit do now?”

“Don’t call him that.” Dick immediately says after taking it, putting so much reproach into the sentence that for a moment Jason feels a sharp tug of envy. Dick never would have responded so sharply to someone calling Jason that when he was Damian’s age, and he’s fairly sure he was far less of a pain to be around than the demon brat is. Though, he does have to admit (if only to himself) that he didn’t exactly make it easy for Dick either. “And he didn’t do anything, exactly. He just asked me to help him find his cat.”

“His cat.” Jason repeats, raising an eyebrow. “Why the hell would he need your help doing that?”

“He didn’t, really, but he hadn’t seen Alfred in a day and was worried he might have gotten stuck somewhere in the manor.” Dick wipes his nose with the kitchen roll, momentarily muffling his words. “I couldn’t exactly say no.”

“Of course you could.” Jason takes a sip of his own cocoa. “It’s a cat, Dick. They look after themselves. Damn thing probably just wanted some peace and quiet away from the kid for a bit.”

“Maybe.” Dick tugs at his lip with his teeth, “But it was important to him, so…”

“God, you’re soft.”

That brings a smile briefly back to Dick’s face before he continues, “Anyway, eventually we found him curled up under the desk in Bruce’s study. I didn’t realise until then what time it was, so I ran straight out the door as fast as I could. But then when I was halfway here it started raining, and well…” He waves the hand holding the kitchen roll at himself.

“You could have called.” Jason says, without as much reproach in his voice as he would like. Hearing the story, as well as having to continue seeing Dick wear his clothes, is rapidly wearing away at his resolve. 

“I know, I’m sorry. I just figured the quicker I got over here the better.” Dick drops his hand, then takes another sip of his cocoa before sneezing once more and wiping his nose again. “Guess I’m paying for it now though. I must look ridiculous like this.”

It’s too much of an invitation not to give him a once over. Jason swallows thickly around the sudden lump in his throat, and tries to listen to the little voice in his head that tells him to just agree. Play the part of the antagonistic little brother and give Dick more shit for leaving him waiting. But instead what comes out is a mumbled, “Nah, you look all right.”

Dick blinks, clearly thrown off by the response, but before he can open his mouth to say anything about it, Jason rapidly continues. “I do think you’re getting a cold, though.”

Dick sniffles, looking down at the makeshift tissue in his hand. “Yeah, probably.”

“Come on,” This time it’s Jason’s turn to sigh, even as he’s now sure his ears really are burning red. “Drink the rest of that up. Then we can move over to the couch and get you a blanket while we work.”

“Can we order Chinese food, too?”

Jason glances over at the nearest window of his apartment, to where the rain has been continuing to hammer down at the world outside the entire time they’ve been talking. A shame for whatever poor delivery boy has to work through it when he inevitably gives in to Dick’s request later on.

“We’ll see.”

**Author's Note:**

> [My tumblr](https://firefrightfic.tumblr.com/)


End file.
